Excerpts of Paul Pogba’s testimony to French authorities over his extortion investigation have been published.
The older brother of the Juventus midfielder, Mathias, was charged, along with four others, with extortion on the weekend.
Le Monde has published an excerpt from Pogba’s testimony dated August 9, evoking the evening of March 19, 2022, while training with the France team in Clairefontaine (for friendly matches against Ivory Coast and South Africa).
After spending time with a childhood friend in Roissy-en-Brie (Seine-et-Marne), the city where he grew up, Pogba was preparing to return home around midnight when several friends from his neighborhood took him to an apartment in Chanteloup-en-Brie.
Arriving on the scene, where he will be held until 4 a.m., Pogba was ordered to turn off his phone. They eventually confiscated it from him.
Two hooded men, dressed in bulletproof vests and heavily armed, then confronted him.
It was at this time that a sum of €13m (including €3m in cash) was demanded as payment for the protection Pogba had received for several years.
The former Manchester United midfielder told investigators: “I was scared.
“Both guys pointed their guns at me. Suddenly, being pointed like this under threat, I told them that I was going to pay. They were shouting: ‘Shut up, look down’.
“One of the two hooded spoke in Roushdane’s ear. When the hooded guys leave, Roushdane told me that I had to pay them, otherwise we were all in danger.
“Roushdane explained that what had just happened is normal when you are a famous football player. But that I had to pay because in addition, he had acted as guarantor.”
One of the four other suspects indicted, in addition to Mathias Pogba, also indicted and imprisoned in the process, would then have threatened Pogba to reveal in ‘broad daylight’ the contents of a USB key on which would be proof of the payment of a marabout to cast a spell on his opponents and on Kylian Mbappé.
However, the demands couldn’t be met after Pogba’s bank refused to release the funds upon request by the player.
It emerged last night that Pogba is now under police protection while in Turin.
